Lawsuit muffins......

Last week I checked 2 books out from our town's libary. A Passion for Baking and The best of Betterbaking.com. Both of these book are by Marcy Goldman. I have her other book, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking as well. I loved that book so much, I ended up buying a copy for my mom. Its rare that I pick up a book and want to make EVERYTHING in them. Thats how I feel about these two books. I spotted this recipe for lawsuit muffins and of course loved the name and the story behind them. I whipped them up this morning as like Marcy suggested, I quadrupeled the topping to stash in my freezer. The muffins lend themselves to all types of fruit combinations. I used blackberries and lemon zest. You could also use blueberries, apples, cranberries, banana's, etc.

The muffins are oil based with a nice dose of buttermilk. They were very tender and flavorful. Leave me a comment with your email address if you want the recipe.

Christmas baking.....

Robin put together a little baking brochure for me and surprise, surprise I got some orders!! I took the train up to Burlington last Friday and spent the afternoon with The Chocolate Doctor making English Toffee. Actually, she made the majority of it, I watched. She also showed me how to temper chocolate. I was happy to use up some E. Guittard coverture that I bought from Williams Somona a year ago!! I used some for a Sugar High Friday event, but I didnt like it. It worked great with the toffee.

Yesterday I spent the entire day baking because one of my customers needed to pick up her order. Thanks to Anna for some inspiration. Anna told me about the jumbles which were really great. Anna made hers with pecans, but I used some toasted almonds. I also used dried bing cherries( from Trader Joe's) and dark choc. chips. I made some candy cane shortbread and to my total surprise, I actually had rice flour in the pantry( don't know why I bought that). I didnt have pepperminte extract and had to send Robin up to the store in the middle of a blizzard to fetch me some. Ina Garten's fruitcake cookies are amazing. I'm not a fruit cake fan, but these rocked!! I used a dried fruit breakfast blend that I bought at Walgreens and candied peel and cherries. I made some oatmeal cookies that were on the back of the reeses pieces for baking bag. You can find the recipe for the molasses crinkles and dried cherry/pistachio wedding cookies on epicurious!!

Spiced pumpkin muffins.....

I donated 2 dozen muffins to the agency I work for( the senior dining program). They're having a meeting on Oct 22nd and needed some muffins. I needed to bake these yesterday and deliver them because of our upcoming 2 weeks without a kitchen. I told them if they froze them, they'd be fine for the meeting. I used this recipe from Libby's. I used Kroger brand pumpkin though. The muffins smelled so good while baking, hopefully they taste good too.

German Chocolate Cake( Cook's Illustrated).....

My poor sick requested a German Chocolate Cake on Saturday after watching America's Test Kitchen make one. Oh, the power of suggestion!! Anyway, I got right on it and a couple hours later we had a beautiful, flavorful, wonderful cake.

I was a tad confused because the recipe on the Cook's website is different from the one in Baking Illustrated. I used the Cook's recipe because it was published after Baking. The frosting was fantastic and I like the idea of adding the pecans after the coconut mixture cools down and before you frost the cake.

German Chocolate Cake

When you assemble the cake, the filling should be cool or cold (or room temperature, at the very warmest). To be time-efficient, first make the filling, then use the refrigeration time to prepare, bake, and cool the cakes. The toasted pecans are stirred into the filling just before assembly to keep them from becoming soft and soggy.
INGREDIENTS


Filling

4 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans (6 1/2 ounces), toasted on baking sheet in 350-degree oven until fragrant and browned, about 8 minutes

Cake

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa , sifted
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus additional for dusting cake pans
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon table salt
4 large eggs , room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream , room temperature



See Illustrations Below: Assembling the German Chocolate Cake

1. FOR THE FILLING: Whisk yolks in medium saucepan; gradually whisk in evaporated milk. Add sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl, whisk in vanilla, then stir in coconut. Cool until just warm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool or cold, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. (Pecans are stirred in just before cake assembly.)
2. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and cocoa in small bowl; pour boiling water over and let stand to melt chocolate, about 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth; set aside until cooled to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, spray two 9-inch-round by 2-inch-high straight-sided cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess. Sift flour and baking soda into medium bowl or onto sheet of parchment or waxed paper.
4. In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter, sugars, and salt at medium-low speed until sugar is moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula halfway through. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down bowl halfway through. Beat in vanilla; increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds. With mixer running at low speed, add chocolate, then increase speed to medium and beat until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl once (batter may appear broken). With mixer running at low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream (in 2 additions), beginning and ending with dry ingredients, and beating in each addition until barely combined. After final flour addition, beat on low until just combined, then stir batter by hand with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, to ensure that batter is homogenous (batter will be thick). Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans; spread batter to edges of pans with rubber spatula and smooth surfaces.
5. Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard paper rounds. Cool cakes to room temperature before filling, about 1 hour. (Cooled cakes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)
6. TO ASSEMBLE: Stir toasted pecans into chilled filling. Set one cake on serving platter or cardboard round cut slightly smaller than cake, and second cake on work surface (or leave on wire rack). With serrated knife held so that blade is parallel with work surface, use sawing motion to cut each cake into two even layers. Starting with first cake, carefully lift off top layer and set aside. Using icing spatula, distribute about 1 cup filling evenly on cake, spreading filling to very edge of cake and leveling surface. Carefully place upper cake layer on top of filling; repeat using remaining filling and cake layers. If necessary, dust crumbs off platter; serve or refrigerate cake, covered loosely with foil, up to 4 hours (if refrigerated longer than 2 hours, let cake stand at room temperature 15 to 20 minutes before serving).

Glad that's over.....

Today, I catered an Open House for a local social service agency. I spent the majority of yesterday baking and cooking in preperation. I made Pumpkin Bread, cranberry bread, hello dollies, toll house cookies( with dark choc. rasberry swirl chips), ginger almond biscotti, Sourcream cranberry bars and triple choc. brownies. I made 3 dips. Giada's white bean dip, a leek/carrot veg dip and a ranch dip( using penzey's ranch mix). The dips will go great with the veggie trays. I also made assorted tea sandwiches( tuna, chicken and egg) and various cheese's with crackers. I provided a slush punch( good recipe if you need a punch) and some drinking chocolate( I used the dulce de leche choc mix I got in a blogging by mail exchange).

The sourcream bars were Anna's recipe. I was looking thru the betty crocker site and came across these. She won a prize in the mix it up with betty contest. The bars were easy and very yummy. Even though they start with a packaged cookie mix, the final product doesnt reflect that.

This was fun to do, but a lot of work. I woke up at 6:30am to do the final prep and Robin was an absolute gem. She cut all the crusts off the bread and help me assemble and wrap the trays with plastic. I could not have done all this without her.

Our plane leaves Friday night for Florida. We will leave here around 1pm to make the drive to detroit. I'm not looking forward to the traffic at the border or the snow that is predicted. My 40th bday is Saturday and my fingers are crossed that we will get there for my party. I just pray that the weather holds out.